For the first half of tonight’s Swedish class I felt like a complete knob.

I missed class last week because “jag var sjuk och trott” (sick and tired) and haven’t really done much since, except listen to Swedish pop (which I do daily).

The only real preparation I had done was translate into English the lyrics for “Gabriellas sång”, featured in the movie, “Så som i himmelen” (As It Is In Heaven).

For the first half of the class I struggled, constantly resorting to the phrase “jag vet inte” (I don’t know) in response to most of the questions asked.

It’s a real dilemma getting your mind into a language when you really only speak it once a week.

Yeah, I speak Swedish most days, but that’s only usually to myself.

So I spent half the lesson really getting my mind back into the language,

And then it was time to listen to the song, and to analyse my translation. Apparently it was quite good, except that in one stanza of the song, I broke up the phrases/sentences incorrectly. Still I was reasonably proud of what I achieved.

In the next few weeks I’m hoping to practice my Swedish a little more. A colleague from Sveriges Radio in Sweden is paying a visit to Sydney – her son is studying here for a year – and I’m hoping I can give her a brief tour.

And through my interest in genealogy, there’s another bloke visiting for a conference – he is a scientist – who is also Swedish and with whom there may be some familial connection.

Yeah, I knew there had to be a Swedish gene in there somewhere. Well, maybe not.

In the meantime, perhaps you would like to enjoy this beautiful song I translated for class tonight…

In case you’re wondering, the song is about a woman who finds confidence in herself and her will to live. Blah blah blah.

Great, eh?